welcome to msnbc. we're watching the developments on capitol hill on the fiscal cliff deal. 12 hours ago, 14 hours ago rather, 2:00 a.m., the senate passed a bill, 89-8 in the bipartisan fashion. then was sent over to the house. it was hopeful that the house would then take that bill and agree to it, that it would pass with 218 votes, and then perhaps it would become law and the fiscal cliff deal would be done. however, we've just learned within the last 30 minutes that the second ranking republican in the house does not support the bill as it stands. and as our luke russert has been reporting to us, this would mean a whole other round of amendments perhaps to that bill. it also could mean that, therefore, it would go to the senate and then back to the house. this as we look at only 44 hours left in the 112th congress, and can they get it done or will it have to start all over again on thursday with the 113th

congress? nbc's luke russert has been reporting for us and he was speaking with members early and heard from one member, luke, and i found this very interesting, you said that that member told you that was in the room for one of the meetings in the conference, 40 members spoke up, 37 spoke out against the plan, and 3 spoke for it. who are those three? who might they be? and what is the sentiment they have that they're so brave as it sounds to be one of the few? >> reporter: well, with he don't know who those three were exactly, but you saw on our air a little while ago mr. latourette saying he would support the plan because he did not think it was right to hold the middle class hostage in these types of negotiations. but, richard, right over my left shoulder behind me about 20 yards is john boehner's office. we're told there's a leadership meeting going on right now amongst the top players in the house gop. they're trying now to possibly sculpt an amend. they could add to this bipartisan senate bill that passed with 89 votes early this

morning to try to bring it on the house floor as early as tonight to change it to something they feel would be more easily digested by their rank and file. we do not know what that amendment will look like. from members i have spoken to, they said they hoped it would be sensible. what is sensible for house republicans is not necessarily sensible for senate democrats or not necessarily sensible for the white house. so we are now going in to the evening hours on january 1st where the markets are closed today, it's a holiday, with no real idea what's going to happen with that compromise crafted by the senate, what the house is going to do. we very well could wake up tomorrow with all street and the markets ramped up and ready to go with no idea what the path forward is. and from folks i have talked to inside that gop leadership meeting who were close to the speaker who were expected to vote on this today, they said they were really surprised by their colleagues, that they were saying things that were totally

illogical. this idea that john boehner could perhaps rehash his negotiations with president obama. members who were there told me that some of their colleagues do not realize how late in the game the country really is when it pertains to the fiscal cliff. so there's a lot of moving parts. we've been saying that. things are fluid. it's become cliche up here, but it really is the truth in that at this point after that bill passed out of the senate with 89 votes, most of us thought there might be a small hiccup, but probably decently smooth sailing. we're approaching very treacherous waters right now. >> it's rocky waters certainly. >> yeah. >> luke, you know, in your notes you said that the member told you, the member that gave you that number, that he felt like he was living in another world. that was the quote here. what was the frustration that was -- that you were sensing? the sheer incredulity was certainly there. >> reporter: i think the idea a lot of the rank and file and they've been called chuckle heads before, this group that

does not want to give an inch on anything, doesn't realize the severity of the situation. i think that's where there's a lot of frustration from folks who have been around here for a while that understand that governing is give and take. there's obviously, this is not a perfect deal for house republicans. there's a lot of things they don't like in it, but a lot of them have told me, the folks who support this bill, is, look, we are getting $400,000 for the threshold. that's up from $250,000, we'll take that and we can fight the president on the debt limit. we can fight him on the government funding bill. there's a lot of fights to be had and there's a lot more we can get. frankly, they think they're better goshg yaters. they don't get where there's this holdup. the folks on the other side say this is a bad bill. there's not enough spending cuts. it's not what we like to see. it's a concussion to the president because it extends unemployment, it extends the middle class tax cuts part of the stimulus. those folks want their voices heard. the way john boehner leads is he says the house is the will of the american people. with cantor coming out against this, you heard from mr. latourette, it would be very hard for john boehner to move

ahead of eric cantor and try to put this bill on the floor without it being amended. >> luke, stand by. mike viqueira is also with us this hour to bring us up to date. one of the points brought up by luke russert when he was speaking with representative latourette was the number that could support the bill as it stands right now, that number that representative latourette was just putting out there was 40 to 50. as we know, that magic number is 218. >> reporter: yeah. here is another number, 89. 89 people in the united states senate voted for this thing and one more number for you, richard, 5. 5 people voting against it. of the eight who voted against it in total were republicans. the thought was that such a strong vote with carry the day in the house of representatives. they would see the political and economic writing on the wall. evidently that's not going to happen or at least it's shaping up that way and the scenario that luke and i have been describing over the course of the last half hour is now taking shape where the house may be

trying to vote tonight or tomorrow to amend this thing and then thereby throwing the entire question of a deal of going off the fiscal cliff into flux because, as we have been discussing, a brand new congress is sworn in on thursday. the senate has said they're not likely to take up anything the house does to begin with and if the new congress is sworn in, the legislative slate is wiped clean and we start over. and there is mayhem and chaos surrounding markets and anger, if there can be any more anger and frustration toward washington because people's paychecks will be checked at a higher rate. let's review what's happened in the last ten days. john boehner and eric cantor put their plan "b" on a friday on the floor 69 house of representatives. it set the income threshold at $1 million over which you would be taxed at a higher rate. they wanted to do that because you simply can't beat something with nothing. they wanted to have something to send over to the senate to negotiate with in addition to what they had sent over last summer which was pretty much a

nonstarter that they had recognized. that crashed and burned and went down in flames at which point john boehner said, look, it's up to the senate. they can negotiate -- harry reid can negotiate with president obama however they want to work it. they essentially punted and said it's up to you. that didn't go very well. mitch mcconnell the republican leader and harry reid at one point stopped negotiating at about 7:00 on saturday night. on sunday morning mitch mcconnell calls joe biden. they get together, offers are traded back and forth, and presto, voila, they come up with a deal and they put it on the floor and it sets those thresholds at $400,000 and $450,000 and it's passed at 2:00 last night and so it comes to the house republicans who have met all morning. joe biden incidentally was back on the hill this morning meeting behind closed doors with democrats who are pretty much bystanders to a republican political train wreck at this point. nancy pelosi says the bill

representing gigantic progress, that's fine, but this is really on republicans right now. and people are looking at it, i'm already hearing people looking at what house republicans are doing and saying, look, you abdicated your responsibility to write a bill. you punted over to the senate, and now you're going to throw a monkey wrench into this whole thing and make us come back perhaps in a new congress with a clean legislative slate. so it is a very dangerous not only economic situation here that we're being presented with this new year's day but certainly a very dicey political situation for house republicans. you mentioned, you know, the vote count. always a nebulous question when you're talking about the house of representatives. there are 241 republicans, i believe, in the house right now in this current congress that's still in session for another day and a half and 190 democrats. you know, we can divide the numbers anyway you want. let's say they get 150 democrats or maybe less because there are plenty of people on the left who think the president caved on those tax rates after

campaigning at the level of $250,000, the president caved. he didn't need to cave. he should have played hardball. they're going to be disaffected. they're going to take a walk on leadership. okay. let's call it 140 democrats. 218 is the majority. do the math, carry the one. what am i up to? 78, 80 republicans they would need. it's still unlikely i think that john boehner would put something on the floor that would need that many democrats and that few republicans that would support it. >> still too far away when it comes to numbers. thanks for doing that. luke, i want to get to you before we go to break in the next minute or so. if we do see an amendment made to the bill that came over from the senate 14 hours ago, is the senate there? they are in session, but will the members be -- can they be brought back in time to make this line in the sand as we know the new 113th congress being sworn in? >> reporter: in theory yes. the senate was in session today. i'm told a lot of the snaenator are very much still in

washington, d.c. they just voted on this bill in the wee hours of this morning. it's hard to believe it's the same day, it's still the same day. assume the house amends it, does harry reid even take it up? it depends what the amendment looks like. if it's going to be a significant spending cut, you have to understand, these negotiations are like jinga. piece upon piece upon piece. if you take something out, the whole thing can fall apart, and honestly, a spending cut amendment, especially one that would be accepted by all house republicans or a lot of the house republicans probably would hurt and blow away the carefully constructed compromise that was crafted and voted on early this morning. it's possible they could do it tomorrow because there's one day left. this congressional session expired 11:59 thursday. >> thank you so much. we hope they're not playing jangg on capitol hill but you

did make it understandable for us. right now the country remains without a deal. we'll go to break and we'll join programming already in process. rachel maddow right after this. to turn it around, and we did.

aig? we sa woman: we're helping joplin, missouri, come back from a devastating tornado. man: and now we're helping the east coast recover from hurricane sandy.

we're a leading global insurance company, based right here in america. we've repaid every dollar america lent us. everything, plus a profit of more than $22 billion. for the american people. thank you, america. helping people recover and rebuild -- that's what we do. now let's bring on tomorrow. it was a cold and gray and wet and rainy afternoon in chicago a few saturdays back. kind of day that not many people want to be outside in unless they absolutely have to. and so only a few people by which i mean a few thousand people, bundled up in their rain gear and headed out to grant park in chicago to cheer on veterans of the iraq war and the afghanistan war. as the second city staged its welcome home parade to mark the end of the iraq war and to thank the troops who served there to say welcome home to the shoulders. go, chicago. and there were marching bands and motorcycles and war dogs and

more than 1,000 veterans turning out to hear spectators on the side of the road shouting thank you, both literally and figuratively from the sidewalks of columbus drive. with the december 15th parade, chicago became the biggest city in the united states to hold an event like this one. and maybe in the year 2013 a parade like this will finally take place in new york city where we traditionally do this as a country. but in 2012 all year long regular joe and regular jane citizens from across the country in cities big and small took the initiative, decided to do it on their own, and they staged their own welcome home parades to mark the end of the iraq war. and every time they did it, it was the best new thing in the world. our nation's first ever, look at that, first ever parade for troops coming home from the war in iraq. it hoped saturday in st. louis, missouri. tens of thousands of people lined the streets cheering the troops and shaking hands. this was a thank you big enough to make the nation notice and

also personal enough to grab your heart and rattle it a little. >> twice army national guard major rick ranford has flown home after serving in iraq. >> you could have dropped me in any city in the united states because i was home. >> reporter: he was touched by the outpouring of his hometown. >> completely overwhelmed. >> this from "nightly news" this weekend. our nation has been debating whether now is a good time to celebrate veterans coming home from iraq, especially since so many of them are being redeployed to afghanistan which is a war, of course, that is ongoing. still though, on sunday the new york giants will be playing the new england patriots in a football game known as the super bowl. by tradition the winning team gets a big parade downtown. the josnew york giants got one 2008. the patriots got one in 2005 when they were champs. there's nothing wrong with celebrating football. i myself am a celebrant. i wonder if it won't be a little weird for our country to go crazy over a sports team while still saying not yet to the

veterans. my friend paul rieckhoff asked that flat out online challenging the mayors of new york and boston. are you really okay with your football team getting a ticker-tape parade and not your iraq vets? for now today st. louis, missouri, pulling off its welcome home the heroes parade. for st. louis, well done. i have a question specifically for any military veterans watching right now. do you by any chance want to rock and roll all night and party every day? you may get your chance because kiss is hiring a rhode. they are touring this summer and they're looking for a set carpenter to assemble their stage, operate special effects, and help take it down. it's a hard job. they say you don't need to be a trained carpenter but you need to be prepared to work hard, long hours. kiss has another request. they say they want to hire a veteran vet to do this job. that is a sweet job for someone

occupying that sweet spot. great as that is, that is not the best new thing in the world. this is the best new thing in the world. tomorrow tucson, arizona, is going to be looking something like this. maybe with different architecture in the background, probably with fewer people wearing warm gloves and hats. that's because these are pictures of the first ever parade in the united states to mark the end of the iraq war. to say welcome home and thank you to iraq war veterans. the iraq war ended in december. this first parade was held in st. louis in january which is why everybody looks cold. 100,000 people showed up in st. louis. it was a huge success. a home run. tomorrow, this is a big deal, tomorrow the second big parade in the united states of america to mark the end of the war. and this time it will be held in tucson, arizona. as was the case in st. louis, this isn't the military or the government coming up with this idea. this is just citizens, just regular folks, regular americans, civilians, who wanted to say thank you and welcome home.

the organizers of tomorrow's tucson parade say they were inspired by what st. louis did. we have had three debates so far. presidential and vice presidential. the candidates collectively have spent the better part of five hours arguing about medicare and social security and china, and immigration and jobs. they have argued over the rules, over freaking big bird but there's been no talk at all about how we are treating veterans. outside the beltway in a totally nonport san way across the country lots and lots and lots of americans have been thinking about what happens to this new generation of veterans when they come home. sometimes with injuries and trauma and almost always in need of a new job. ordinary americans are holding their own parades, welcome home troops, love st. louis. welcome home troops, love houston. welcome home, love richmond, virginia. also welcome home, love little melbourne, florida, and tucson and new england coastal sport

portsmouth, new hampshire. the pentagon for reasons i do not start to understand still says they do not want new york city to hold a parade to mark the end of the iraq war and welcome home the troops. and new york city is where we have always done this sort of thing as a nation. i mean, new york did throw one ticker-tape parade this year for the super bowl champion new york giants, and at their parade, we met the willis family. mom, glenda with her grandson josiah. they brought with them a picture of glenda's son and not incidentally a huge giants fan. sergeant willis had sent a message from afghanistan before the big game. >> i'm staff sergeant willis. i'm originally from brooklyn new york and i want to say hi to my family in brooklyn and go big blue. >> his mom told us she promised him she would go to the parade

if the giants won and she would bring his picture. well, the giants won and work held the parade and glenda kept her promise. she told us it would be compassionate to have a par rad for her son and daughter in new york. there's still no parade in the works for new york city to welcome home the troops, but i can tell you that sergeant willis is home. and he and his family are here tonight with us watching the show in this very room. so welcome home, sergeant willis. look, you're on tv. it is really cool to have you guys here and it's the best new thing in our world today. best new thing in the world today, st. louis, missouri, pulling off its welcome home the heroes parade. they did it first in the country and it's the best new thing in the world today and there will be more to come, mark my words. best new thing in the world today. >> best new thing in the world. they actually keep getting better from here. stay with us. the poop fairy one is coming up.

the world today and there will

whether it is helping to tag a tranquilized polar bear in the wild or tranquilizing a tiger at a preserve or shooting a gray whale with a crossbow to collect skin samples or discovering two ancient greek urns in the black sea or whether it is riding a motor bike or putting out wildfires from a plane, whether it is showing off his judo moves, whether it is swimming in a siberian lake topless or fishing topless or riding a horse topless, it is inarguable that russia's perennial president vladimir putin is master of the manly photo-op. his newest persona is hockey star. >> vladimir putin, hockey star. there's one best new thing this year that included a mystery guest impersonating the anchor of this show in a way that made me want to quit and make her the host of the show.

that's coming up. stay with us. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do. the best new thing in the world today is a growth opportunity for republican political strategists. a lucrative source of revenue just waiting to be tapped. now, i, jane lynch, am not normally one to give career advice to republicans, but guys and gals, there's money to be made on promoting gay rights within the republican party. you see, the de facto head of the republican party, one willard mitt romney, has taken a strong position on the side of

the gay rights debate, that if you're a politician is getting to be the side you don't much want to be on. but the rest of his party may be about to evolve around him. this weekend a respected republican pollster, one who helped president george w. bush win re-election, wrote a memo basically saying, guys, i've got a lot of polling here, and the gay marriage thing is setting kind of popular. and he suggested that republicans might want to change the way they talk about stuff like gay marriage. maybe start saying that support for gay marriage is consistent with, quote, conservative fundamentals. as people who promote personal responsibility, family values, commitment, and stability and emphasize freedom and limited government, we have to recognize that freedom means freedom for everyone. this includes the freedom to decide how you live and to enter into relationships of your choosing. the freedom to live without excessive interference of the regulatory force of the government.

folks, that's a republican telling republicaning s folks, that's a republican telling republicaning to refram gay rights. he may be one of the first to do it, but he won't be the last. but jane lynch, you ask, where is the job opportunity in all this? after all, we republicans are all about jobs, jobs, jobs. well, here it is. someone is going to have to teach republicans how to talk about gay rights without seeming like they've caved to the democrats. some strategists are going to have to make it their specialty. to teach republicans how to be pro-gay while still sounding angry. that's a very tall order, but the good news is, you can charge more money. republicans are trying to figure out how to lose gracefully. oh, best new thing in the world today. >> jane lynch, you're the best new thing in the world today. >> thank you so much. >> when you said, folks -- do i do that? >> you do. i was mocking you.

>> i felt new a very painful way. >> thanks for doing the best new thing in the world. it's weird i'm in the guest chair. >> how does it feel? >> subservient but in a good way. >> i'm up a little higher and this is the better side of my face. >> do you want to be a cable news host ever? >> i'd love to play one. i don't know that i'd want to do it day in and day out. i know how much you guys work and how you have to have your finger on the pulse and all that but i'm a political junkie but i'd love to play one. >> when he asked you if you wanted to do a best new thing in the world, you had a republican pollster memo in mind for something you wanted to do. >> yeah. >> i mean, the thing about the subject of what you just talked about that i think is interesting is that this is something -- i mean, you are out, you are sue sylvester on "glee" you have written this back "happy accidents" in which you talk about your coming out story and your family and all these personal things and we are in a moment when the politics of gay rights are rapidly, rapidly changing in the country. >> i know. fast, really fast. you know, it is an issue that i

have not really taken personally so much. it's something i watch on television is great interest, i have a stake in it, i have skin in the game as it were, but when the president came out and said he supported the dignity. our families and our relationships, that really moved me. that really touched me for the first time and i realized i had been kind of distanced emotionally from it, but that really kind of broke it open for me. it made me very, very happy. >> that was one of those things that covering it as a gay person, think being it as a gay person and covering it as a person in the news, i felt like half of me had to have a talk with the other half because like -- >> understood. >> in the pundit world, the way that was responded to and the way people are still talking about it in pundit world, in politics world is, well, how many people are there who agree with the president? it's going to help him with them and how many people di agrees with him, it's going to hurt him with them. and the gay part of me, sort of human part of me, wants to explain, you know what? the big issue here, the big question is who already agrees with him or disagrees with him,

but who is still changing their mind? who is persuadable? and is he going to persuade anybody? does this change history? >> i don't know if it changes history. i don't know if it was just political calculus on his part, but i think he really does believe in the dignity of our relationships and our right to exist, but i think there are people we're not going to get, and that's fine and probably not in this lifetime and that's fine, but i think there are changeable folks. and i think a lot of it -- a lot of people change when they're in the presence of one of us. they get to know us and they get to know our family, and i think that's, you know, being -- that's why i think being out for me anyway is important, and, you know, allowing myself to appear in public with my family and not hiding about it and i think that's really important. >> you know, one -- i have a sound bite that i wanted to play for you that was from before president obama came out and said what he did. a few days before that, vice president biden, god bless him, went on "meet the press" i think

to everybody's surprise started talking about how he was all in favor -- >> i love him. >> same-sex marriage rights. but he mentioned -- he hit a pop culture tv touchstone while he was explaining it. can we play that sound bite? >> this is e voluming. by the way, my measure david, and i take a look at when things really began to change, it was in the social culture changes. i think "will and grace" probably did more to educate the american public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far, and i think people fear that which is different. now they're beginning to understand. >> as at person who is part of a -- the phenomenon that is "glee" on tv, how do you think it felt to the "will and grace" people to be mentioned in that context. >> i know all four of them. i'm sure they're absolutely thrilled about it. when they first did that show and nbc sat them down and said, this could possibly turn into a huge thing and you might be

threatened, it might get ugly, it never happened. never happened. and these are flawed characters. they're funny, you laugh at them, you want to go into that apartment every -- whatever night it was on, thursday night, and hang out with them. and i think that does change a lot. like biden said, you have to kind of put us out in the culture and see who they are and if we're flawed, it has nothing to do with our orientation, it's because we're flawed people. >> full human beings. shocker. i wonder, do you think there's an extension, because you were saying as people know more gay people, as more people come out, that tends to sort of soften even very hard attitudes about gay rights. is there an extension that as people are exposed to the reality of gay lives just through culture, through tv, through theater, whatever it is, that that also has that affect? >> absolutely. people are tied to their televisions. people come up to me like they

know me because i appear on their television. >> they want you to believe them. >> exactly. say something mean to me. they think we're their friends. so we do befriend the people on our televisions so i think it's really great that people like ryan murphy, the creator of our show, takes this very seriously and that's why he has every flavor of kid in the glee club. he wants every kid who watches this show to have somebody that they can point to and go that's me. and look i'm being supported. i'm in a place where people have my back and i get to raise my voice in song. >> yeah. i always felt like one of the things that i would always try to explain to people about like what i learned from junior high and high school sf that popularity in junior high and high school doesn't buy you anything in later life.

like really you ought to look for the kids who -- like the cothed dorkier you are, the cooler you are in later years. >> if you're geeky, it's a geeky time in your life so you're being genuine. you're not trying to be something else. how many junior high or high school stars have we heard about who just fail as adults because they really haven't gone through that? they haven't gotten to know their trueself. >> i sort of feel like i'm waiting to feel like my trueself. i'm looking at her and it's great. >> it's going to be in a dark alley and it's going to be a fight when it happens. one last question about politics. that is at the same time that we've been seeing this sort of transformation in the democratic party, the president completing his evolution and all these different things. >> yes. >> on the right in the republican party, mitt romney's actually gone the other direction in his stance on gay rights. when he ran for senate, he said

he was going to be to the left of ted kennedy and now he's not only against equal marriage rights, he's against civil unions and -- >> we're talking together right now, he's probably against that. >> it's probably illegal somewhere and he supports that state's right to make it that way. i understand how people evolve on this issue. it is harder for me to understand how people devolve. >> i don't think you devolve on this issue. i don't buy it. i don't think it's genuine. i think it's politically calculated. >> mitt romney -- >> mitt romney politically calculated i think deep down inside, i think there's a little calculus going on with him. >> if he wants to come on the show and talk to me or fake me, which is you, about that, that would be awesome. jane lynch, the finale of "glee" airs next tuesday night on fox. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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this week, this picture became a brand new idea to everybody on the internet machine. when it became a hook for the best new photographic politics meme we have had in a long time. hey girl, ryan gosling, it's madam secretary. the former secretary of state says so the then i sent her a text saying i think i left my favorite sunglasses in the desk. sorry, condi, haven't seen them. this one is really good. hey, hill, what you doing? running the world. i love this text from hillary clinton. fish and game authorities were able to corner the bear in somebody's backyard, but not

before the best new thing in the world happened. one guy, watch this, learning a vital lesson about texting and walking at the same time -- see the guy? see the guy? that's a bear. can we see that again? in super slo-mo. there's the bear, there's the guy texting, looking down, and then he notices a little something. oh, geez, run away. of course, california fish and game's advice for anybody who encounters a bear is don't run away. they say face the animal, make noise, and try to appear as large as possible. but in this case, texting dude is okay. he says he was texting his boss. and also bear is okay. tranquilized and successfully transported for release back into the wild even if it does now have an unsightly ear tag. >> when you are this close to hoover dam, it makes you realize how small a human is in relation to this as a human project. you can't be the state who builds this. you can't even be the town who builds this. but you can be the guy that

stops something like this. we've got a project like this waiting for the president's go ahead supported by republicans and democrats, labor unions. it provides energy security and up to 130,000 jobs. >> national republican congressional committee, you guys nailed me. you got me exactly right. seriously, it's uncanny. there is no poop fairy. there is no winged antennaed creature ready to swoop out of the sky. as depicted by the graphics department of the jefferson county sheriff's office which you see here. we just received word that the simultaneously disillusioning and instructive don't believe in the poop fairy complain is expanding. now to boise, idaho. they are planning to inveil their own poop fairy campaign this spring. the poop fairy did not just get invented in colorado. way back in 2004 an early iteration of the poop fairy was

unveiled in a psa, watch this. >> do your part and scoop the poop because, guess what? there's no such thing as the poop fairy. >> so good move boise, idaho, in adopting the poop fairy as your own. it worked great apparently in colorado and both colorado and boise, if you want to thank the original poop fairy, we know she was from virginia. she was an overheated adorably slightly overweight chocolate lab. likor is the dutch word for yummy. so the noise the scooter makes is yummy, yummy, yumy, pizza, pizza, domino's, domino's. watch it in action on the

street. >> domino's pizza. domino's, domino's, domino's. >> the best part of it is that the bzz noise is just a guy going bzz. ♪ somebody is cutting up onions in the studio obviously. perhaps my allergies are acting up. i may need to be alone with my fenway feelings. i'm a cryer. you can't do this to me. are you ready? the parents are named chowder and clementine. the nine children are pork chop, pickles, saffron, olive, peaches, turnip, radish, rutabaga, and kevin. kevin? he's like the marilyn muenster of the family of the impossibly

cute otters. mr. putin took to the rink to play in an he can hi biths game and although he was on a team of amateurs and the amateurs were playing a team of russian hockey legends, president putin's team won. duh! but it is how his team won and his role in the glory that is important. can your american president score a hockey goal? look at that. putin can. seriously, can we look at that? can we look at that for a second? here is the first pass, right? and there is president putin missing it. while here, far, far away in hockey terms is the defender. way out there. the defender from the team of the country's best players. all the other defenders are covering their men but their men are not president of russia. the president's defender keeps a safe distance from him. after another pass the president left completely alone scores the goal, no defender in sight. yes, it's good to be king. an emergency financial manager in charge of the detroit schools

decided katherine ferguson academy was going to be closed. the young women decided they were not having it. they started protesting, including in some cases getting arrested. we started reporting on their fight to keep this very ambitious school open and in june of last year those girls and their founding principal, they won their fight. they kept katherine ferguson academy's doors open. they won and them winning that fight last year means that this is possible this year. yesterday, 24 young women suited up in white robes, they put on their mortar boards, got their diplomas handed to them by miss andrews. all of today's graduates have applied for college. congratulations katherine ferguson academy class of 2012. you would not be here had you not fought for it and by fighting for it, you won. best new thing in the world today. definitely not the best hockey game in the world but for pure, pure thor tearian hubris, it is definitely the best new thing in the world today. kevin, the asian small clod

otter. the endangered species of the boy named sue. one of these otters is not like the other otters is the best new thing in the world. happy 100th birthday fenway park. the mother of all poop fairies. best new thing in the world today. go, boise, go. this close encounter between a texter and the nature, geez, best new thing in the world. especially the hair. you totally got my hair exactly right because this is what i my hair looks like. best new thing in the world today. best new thing in the world today. best new thing in the world. we've got more ahead. please stay with us. [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix.

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thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it helps to have people around you... they say, you're much bigger than this. and you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you.

one of the things i love best about what i do for a living is that it is almost impossible to predict what's going to take off, and people who are trying to make a particular thing take off don't always get their way.

sometimes some other force takes hold. and it's especially true in a year like 2012 in an election year. in the wake of the incredibly important debate between the candidates and it ended up that the topic that everybody was talking about in all of politics was big bird. after everything else, after all the tens of hundreds of millions of dollars spent to make people talk about whatever these guys wanted them to talk about, the 2012 race for president ended up for a while being brought to you by the letter "b." things happen. just as this show every night is brought to you by a huge number of hugely talented and hard-working people who you do not necessarily see on camera but without whom i could not do what i do even for a minute. the best staff in all of cable television works on this tv show. i don't know what i did to deserve it but i am very, very, very grateful for it. i am nothing without these guys. and none of us would be here at all if you weren't here watching. so from all of us here at the

rachel maddow show, thank you. thank you for watching the show. we love our jobs, and you make it possible for us to have them. happy new year. ♪

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